Microsoft to slash OneDrive Storage

Microsoft has announced its plans to make some significant changes to the amount of storage available to Office 365 and free storage users. According to the blog post, it will be ending the unlimited storage for Office 365 users and free storage users. Going forward Microsoft will be restricting the storage available to Office 365 users to 1TB, free storage users will also see theirs slashed to 5GB from 15GB and the 15GB Camera roll bonus will be discontinued as from 2016. The 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.

Microsoft's reason for this is as a result of certain users who have "abused the unlimited storage" available to Office 365 users, who have used up to 75TB storing movies and DVR recordings.

OneDrive users who have exceeded the new limits set by Microsoft have been given a transition period of 12 months to get their usage under the limits.

If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and have stored in excess of 1 TB, you will be notified of this change and will be able to keep your increased storage for at least 12 months.

If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and find that Office 365 no longer meets your needs, a pro-rated refund will be given.

If you are using more than 5 GB of free storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes go into effect in early 2016.

In addition, you can redeem a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage.

Current customers of standalone OneDrive storage plans (such as a 100 or 200 GB plans) are not affected by these changes.

In some way, I do feel the reasons for these changes are a bit ridiculous. What's the point of offering unlimited storage if you actually have plans of keep to your part of the bargain. These changes will only continue to make Microsoft less credible in the eyes of the consumers with their endless flip-flopping and considering that considering that their competitors such as Google offer plans with better value for money.